Florida, 2001

Tornado in Florida, August 21, 2001

August 21, 2001 · NWS MFL · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Miami, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 21, 9:00 AM EST, 3 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 21, 9:00 AM EST, 3 hours 15 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL
1000 AM EDT TUE AUG 21 2001

AS OF THIS MOMENT...NO CHANGES IN THE PREVIOUS FORECAST PACKAGE.
HOWEVER..I DO BELIEVE WE COULD SEE ISOLATED HEAVY PRECIP IN SOME
AREAS THIS AFTERNOON AS 12Z SOUNDING CAME IN WITH A HIGHER PW (1.90)
AND STILL MEAN STEERING FLOW IS VERY LIGHT. THIS WILL ALLOW ANY
THUNDERSTORM THAT DEVELOP TO REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY OR DRIFT VERY
SLOWLY.

.MIA...NONE.

GARCIA

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Aug 21, 8:30 AM EST, 3 hours 45 minutes before
FLZ063-066>075-202000-

SOUTH FLORIDA HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL
930 AM EDT TUE AUG 21 2001

...SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON...
...SLIGHT CHANCE OF WATERSPOUTS ATLANTIC COASTAL WATERS...

SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP ALONG THE EAST AND WEST COAST
SEA BREEZES THIS AFTERNOON. DAYTIME HEATING AND ABUNDANT TROPICAL
MOISTURE WILL COMBINE TO PRODUCE SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS OVER
INTERIOR SECTIONS OF SOUTH FLORIDA.

ON THE WEST COAST...THE THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY WILL MOVE SLOWLY
TOWARD THE INTERIOR OF SOUTH FLORIDA. ON THE EAST COAST...THE
THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE TOWARD THE EAST COAST METROPOLITAN AREAS AND
ALONG THE SEA BREEZE.

THE PRIMARY HAZARDS FROM THESE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE FREQUENT CLOUD
TO GROUND LIGHTNING STRIKES...LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL ALONG WITH
GUSTY WINDS. HOWEVER...SOME OF THE THUNDERSTORMS COULD APPROACH
SEVERE LIMITS WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH. SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS
REQUESTED FOR THIS AFTERNOON.

A LIGHT EAST TO SOUTHEAST LOW TO MID LEVEL WIND FLOW WILL RESULT IN
A SLIGHT CHANCE OF WATERSPOUTS OVER THE ATLANTIC COASTAL WATERS
TODAY.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION VISIT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN
MIAMI WEBSITE AT HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/MIA.

GARCIA

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:13 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Miami-Dade

When
August 21, 12:15 PM EST to 12:30 PM EST
Where
Miami-Dade County, Hialeah
Rating
F0
Path length
4 mi
Path width
10 yd
Reported by
BROADCAST MEDIA
Coordinates
25.850, -80.267

A tornado touched down in Hialeah and moved south southwest before lifting in the west Doral area. The funnel was visible up to 10 miles away and was photographed by numerous people and the media. No damage was observed along its path. Another small funnel cloud also formed from the parent thunderstorm.

What these are

Tornado
A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Florida in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Florida, 2001Warnings in Florida, August 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5262334.